Saturday, May 05, 2007

Two Calgary Police Officers Suspended For Violent Arrest

From Canadian Press:CALGARY (CP) - Two Calgary police officers were relieved from duty Thursday over allegations they used excessive force in the arrest of a suspect in a drug case.

A private citizen videotaped the arrest a week ago from a nearby apartment balcony and sent a copy of the tape to police chief Jack Beaton, who held a news conference to say he has ordered a full investigation of the incident. The tape, shot at about 1 a.m., shows two officers handcuffing a male suspect who is face down on the ground, his hands behind his back.

One officer hits the suspect twice in the side of the head, then forcefully pins the suspect with his knee between the man's shoulder blades.

The officer then drags the suspect along the ground by his arms, which are stretched out behind his back.

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As a society, we grant our police the power and resources to keep the peace. This group is mandated to carry guns, handcuffs, batons, spray, tazers, - the things they need to enforce the 'peace' we all want in our daily lives. They are authorized to detain, question and take whatever actions are required to fulfill that mandate.

But here is the trade off - they DO NOT get to do some things like punching people in the head while they are detained and handcuffed.

Our police have to deal with the most violent members of our society and I have a lot of sympathy for the positon they are in. But ... the video posted here shows that a line was crossed in this incident. PERIOD!

Well put, leftdog. I tink for the most part the police do an excellent job of protecting us. As a victim of violence myself I can attest to that. That said, unfortunately there are a few bad apples out there who give the police a bad name, and they must be dealt with.

I believe that the police do not get enough credit for the job that they do. They are the ones running in when everyone is running out, they have people with contagious diseases constantly spit blood and other fluid in there faces. They have to live with the stress of approaching violent persons not knowing if they are armed or what their intentions are. It looked to me like the arrestee was not yet in handcuffs and without sound it is hard to say whether he was disobeying verbal commands. I think it is ignorant of any of us to judge the officers not knowing what led up to this or not knowing the potentially violent history of the person they arrested.

Alsio, anonymous, police are trained to deal with hostile people nonviolently. In addition, this man was unarmed, lying on the ground, and outnumbered. The police had absolutely no excuse to rough him up.

In response to Stephen...what I saw on that tape was not excessive. It has been reported in the news that the guy was arrested for drugs and it is well-known that those associated to drugs are usually armed with knife or gun. How many shootings have there been in this area in the last year? And I believe that there was a murder at the other end of the block in the last year aswell. Make you feel any better about walking into an alley like that at night? The guy struggled with the officers and was dealt with accordingly. He was not injured so I would say that they used appropriate amount of force. I think that it is unfair of anyone to sit and criticize their actions. Last I noticed, the police were hiring....Why not go work a shift Erik and show us how it is done.